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[debrat]

My husband and I wanted to take the EFE TerraSur tren from Santiago to Temuco this December. The two travel books we have, plus the website, mentions this trip but we have not been able to select these two locations. We finally called the EFE customer service and they stated that they do not have a tren that goes to Temuco. So, does anyone know what happened to this particular tren route? Was it discontinued or is it temporarily not available?

[mmbcross]

According to information presently available, the EFE Terrasur only goes from Santiago to Chillan. They are extending the high speed rail to Concepcion. Meanwhile there is a direct rail/bus connection from Chillan to Concepcion. There are frequent bus services from Concepcion to Temuco (290 kms) and Puerto Montt (698 kms).

Once upon a time there was an overnight (12 hour) train from Santiago to Puerto Montt, via Temuco, but this seems to have been discontinued. This, of course, could change at any moment. Perhaps it will by the time you get there in December. Keep an eye on the EFE website.
www.efe.cl

Good luck, and be sure you write up your travels on Travelpod.

[debrat]

According to information presently available, the EFE Terrasur only goes from Santiago to Chillan. They are extending the high speed rail to Concepcion. Meanwhile there is a direct rail/bus connection from Chillan to Concepcion. There are frequent bus services from Concepcion to Temuco (290 kms) and Puerto Montt (698 kms).

Once upon a time there was an overnight (12 hour) train from Santiago to Puerto Montt, via Temuco, but this seems to have been discontinued. This, of course, could change at any moment. Perhaps it will by the time you get there in December. Keep an eye on the EFE website.
www.efe.cl

Good luck, and be sure you write up your travels on Travelpod.

Thank you so much. We figured as much but needed to get confirmation. We are taking the train to Concepcion instead and then driving into Lake County. I certainly will write up our travels. I wish that I had known this site when we went to Argentina last year.

[shomitheway]

Hello, I'm from Chile and I can give you information about the trains to Temuco.

EFE is now in a critical economic problem, so the daily train to Temuco was suspended on June of 2006, after heavy rains that destroyed a little part of the line (80 m). After the repairs, EFE didn't restored the train. The same luck ran with the train to Concepción.

On summer of 2007, the train to Concepción returned with 2 trains per day in each direction. At the end of that summer, the train dissapeared again.

On summer of 2008, EFE restored the train to Temuco, but only with a weekly train. Now it's sleeping again on the sheds. I would be cool yif EFE restores it again for next summer, but it's difficult, because of inner EFE's problems.

Now, EFE's services to the south from Santiago, other than the commuter services, are to Chillán, with an optional bus link to Concepción. Keep checking www.efe.cl if some good news come for trains to the south of Chile.

Hope that this have had been useful.

If you have any question, just tell me.

P.D.: Sorry for my english.

[mmbcross]

Hey Shomitheway, that's very useful information, and your English is great. Do you live in Chile? If so, would you be interested in becoming a moderator for Chile? I'll get Louise Brown from Travelpod to get in touch with you. You could be a wonderful help to visitors to your part of the world.

Hope you can accept
Cheers
Martin

[shomitheway]

Hey Shomitheway, that's very useful information, and your English is great. Do you live in Chile? If so, would you be interested in becoming a moderator for Chile? I'll get Louise Brown from Travelpod to get in touch with you. You could be a wonderful help to visitors to your part of the world.

Hope you can accept
Cheers
Martin

Hello Martin.

I'm just reading your message (after three months)
Yes, I'm chilean and I can help in the forum to anything about trains in Chile (It would be more difficult to help in all the topics about tourism in Chile, but I'll try my best to help). You're offering me to be a moderator for this section of the forum, as I see. And my answer is: Yes.

Cheers.

Domingo.

[mmbcross]

Thanks Domingo. I'll pass this message on to Louise at Travelpod. She will get in touch. I hope you will take on this task. It's not very time consuming, but I hope you will look at your e-mails more often than once every three months!

Cheers, and thanks for offering to help our travellers in Chile.